Tuesday, November 27, 2012

We did Thanksgiving with just our little family this year and it was so fun! The day before Daci and I made our pies. We made pumpkin (my favorite) and banana cream (Rick's favorite).

My little sous chef

Ready to go in the oven!

She loved lining the bottom with the bananas

Thanksgiving was very low key and relaxing. We played with the babies when we woke up and then when they went down for their first nap, Rick, Daci and I did a gratitude thanksgiving craft. We each got five feathers and we wrote down the things we were grateful for. Daci drew pictures of what she was grateful for. Once we finished, we attached the feathers to an empty toilet paper roll and added eyes, a beak and a gobbler :)

Daci was grateful for her home, her mom and dad, church, the park, and food

I did the feathers on the left side too low :-/

After the babies' naps Rick played with them while I made food!

They have so much fun with him

Rick tried to play with Liv by herself and Street got pretty jealous/mad :)

So Rick gave him some alone time too :)

Working on the gluten free biscuits

Daci and dad snuggled up watching a movie . Daci was so over pictures by this point :)

All ready to eat! "Quit taking pictures, Mom! We are hungry!"

Rick didn't want the traditional turkey and mashed potatoes this year. He requested his favorite meal...ham with cherry sauce, funeral potatoes and brussel sprouts. I made gluten free biscuits and they were a flop...but the kids enjoyed them :) I also had to make our Pedersen Traditional Slush. MMMM!

Street going to town on his biscuit

Daci with her food

Liv lovin' her grub too

Me with the meal I slaved over ;)

Yum!

Carly and Micah came over for pie after their meal

Street liked hanging out on dad's shoulders

We set up the camera to get a family pic....this is the best we could get :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, fun and food!

Friday, November 23, 2012

The babies turned 10 months on the 21st! Seriously I feel like I've been in a time warp since they were born. I literally can't believe they are ten months old but I also feel like its taken forever to get to this point! Since we know this will be a long post, I'll cut my reminiscing short ;)

Miss Liv:
-Still the happiest baby around! She brings so much joy to our family. She is always smiling and she has the funniest personality. She is always trying to get us to smile and laugh. I went outside to take her ten month pictures and she was like a little baby model, giving me a new face for each shot :) Her little smile melts our hearts!
-Her tongue is ALWAYS poking out :) We love it!
-She also always has her mouth wide open in a big "o" shape and makes this funny noise....kinda like the noise from "The Ring" but not as creepy :)
-Her kisses are opened mouthed like that. She will have her mouth wide open, making her funny noise, and then she will just fall right on your cheek with a big, wet kiss. Love it!
-She loves to wave "hi" to us. Especially when she is in her high chair. I taught them to wave when they were in their high chairs so I think she thinks that is where she is supposed to wave :) She is starting to wave in other situations now though too :)
- She is walking! Not everywhere, or all the time but she can take about four steps consistently and last night she took seven. I can't believe what a go-getter she is. She loves to be independent!
-She has been standing since 8 1/2 months. She can stand for as long as she wants and is so stable. She will be standing, bend down to pick something up, and stand right back up. She will even drink her bottle, with her head tilted backward while standing up :)
-Speaking of drinking her bottle, it is kind of infuriating....in a hilarious and adorable sort of way. She can't just lay down and drink, she sits up, crawls around, plays with toys, stands up, waves, etc all while drinking her bottle. It takes about double the time for her to finish hers as it does for Street to finish his :)
-She has four teeth and is working on her fifth
-Her eyes are still blue although they look like the might finally be changing. I would be surprised if we ended up with a blue eyed girl, but it would be fun!
-She is still our little tubby :) She is always on the go and eats the same amount as Street but she sure retains it better! She is still 2 lbs bigger and we love her rolls!
-She is wearing 18 month clothes! She is so long and so big! She is about a season ahead of the clothes we had for Daci so that presents a problem now. We have had to start buying her a few things.
-She still loves her binkie.
-She never makes a peep when she wakes up. Street does all the yelling and hollering so I don't think she feels the need :) She just plays around in her crib with her bink in her mouth until we decide to answer to the screaming beast that is her little brother :)
-She loves food!
-She LOVES to dance! She has two dance moves. The first is she graps her hands in front of her chest and swings from side to side, so adorable! The second is she flaps her arms up and down like she is leading the music. She gets going faster and faster until you think she is going to lift off :)
-She also flaps with her arms and legs when we lay her down to change her diaper or put her down for bed. Her legs and arms starting flapping and flailing so hard and it is hilarious!
-She says mama quite a bit. She also says "nnn, nnn" for "num num" and she will say "ba ba" for her bottle also
-Her favorite toy is our train. She and Street play forever at that thing pushing all the buttons, standing behind it, and bobbing up and down while holding on to it when the music comes on.
-She absolutely HATES to be gated in the family room. The only time Livvi ever gets upset is when the gate is up. She stands up to the gate and yells and cries for me to take it down. If I go in there with her she handles it better :)
-She adores her big sister. She follows her around and loves it when she plays with her.

You can really see her fun, happy, silly personality in these first few shots of her:

They started drinking sippy cups this month and they were both pros the first time

Here is a montage of her crazy drinking habits. They were all taken within like 20 seconds of each other. She is constantly moving!

Another crazy bottle shot. Street is laying still on the ground and Liv is crawling all over the place :)

Dancing with Daci

More playing with Daci

Could be one of my favorite pictures of her! Although she looks way to grown up, which makes me a little sad!

This illustrates her wild flapping pretty well :)

She falls asleep like this quite often. She sits up, puts her blankie on her lap and lays her head on it :)

This is the new face she makes when she is ready for a new bite and I'm taking too long :)

Here's her wide open mouth....she was making her weird noise too :)

And theres her open mouth kiss. Please excuse my open mouth. I find it is hard to keep mine closed when hers is open :)

Mr Street:
-My handsome little man! Can't get enough of this face!
-He plays hard to get. He is very selective with his smiles and definitely doesn't give them when I want him to (like when I pull the camera out!)
-He is very stubborn. Will cry forever and ever if he doesn't want to sleep, refuses to give a smile if he doesn't want to, refuses to open his mouth if he doesn't want to eat what you are offering, refuses to stand if he's not in the mood, etc. etc.
-His eyebrows are SO expressive! They are just like Daci's eyebrows. They are dark and he uses them to express what he is feeling whether its happy, mad, sad, annoyed, etc.
-He FINALLY decided to try standing up. The first two days it was HILARIOUS to watch because he was terrified but you could tell he really wanted to do it. We would let go of his hands and he would do a little squat thing so he wasn't too far off of the ground and then he would put his hands straight in the air to make sure he could balance and he would stick his right pointer finger up like it was the only reason he was staying balanced. Then after just a second or two he would lower himself down to sitting very slowly and controlled :) He was SO proud of himself! Seriously his smile was the cutest and he wanted so much praise for it. Each time he did it longer he would smile bigger and beg for more praise with his eyes :) After two days he was standing very sturdily and can stay as long as he wants, but that still isn't very long. You can see a mixture of pride and fear in his eyes when he is standing :)
-He hates the camera. He will be smiling and happy and the second I pull the camera or my phone out he turns to a scowl and turns his head to the side. A few days ago he started either squinting his eyes shut or covering his eyes because he hates the flash :)
-He also LOVES to dance. He has one move and it is hilarious. He puts his legs straight out in front of him and rocks forward and back and he gets going harder and harder until his legs are rocking up off the floor like hes in a V with his bum on the floor and his legs up. So funny!
-He has perfect turn out....well I call it turn out, Rick calls it pigeon toed and it makes him really nervous ;)
-He has 4 teeth and is also working on his fifth
-His eyes are a dark brown like Daci's
-He wears size 12-18 months but the 18 months are a little baggy on him
-The last week he has been a stinker about his second nap. Quite often he doesn't take a second nap at all and by 5pm is a nightmare to be around!
-He loves his bottles and lays very still and motionless with his legs crossed as he drinks them...quite oposite of his sister :)
-He hates to get his diaper changed and he thrashes and twists the whole time
-He also loves his food
-He doesn't spit up hardly ever anymore (HALLELUJAH!) but he does still have his reflux. You can hear it coming up and down and then he cries really hard :(
-His sound of choice is the "d" sound. He says "da da" a lot and he also says "Du!" when he is really excited
-He loves the TV, especially Dora the Explorer :)

Tell me thats not the most handsome face you have ever seen....I dare ya

This is his most common look when I'm taking pics. Kinda like, "Mom, you are gonna have to do better than that to entertain me"

The famous scowl

The scowl with the bottom lip sticking out....look at those eyebrows!

And occasionally I look goofy enough that he will give me a generous little smirk :)

This is him "winning" after an hour of not going down for his nap I finally gave up. He was pretty proud :)

How he drinks his bottles. Love those tootsies!

Working on standing!

Heres his half stand/half squat with his hands straight in the air. Notice the look of fear/pride in his eyes? :)

So proud! Hahaha! I love this pic :)

Much more balanced and straight up. Notice his perfect turn out? :)

The babies were sick last week. They got ear infections and then Street's ear infection also gave him a bright red eye :(

Closing his eyes when I pull the camera out...he hates the flash

Covering his eyes from the flash :)

-We moved the babies into Daci's room when they turned 9 months. We put Daci in with us for the first week while the babies got used to the new room and were sleep trained. The first two nights were rough, to say the least. But after that they slept 13 hrs a night for the next two weeks! Then they got sick and all that went out the window....BOO! They are finally better again and we are back to sleep training...lets hope they remember quickly :)

-Like I said, they got sick last week. We were at the doctor 3 times that week :( The babies both had double ear infections, Street's was really bad. This was Liv's second ear infection. Street also got a bright red eye for three days.

-They have four bottles a day. 6 oz when they wake up, 6 oz before each nap, and 8 oz before bed. The two bottles during they day are breast milk. The morning and night bottles are formula.

-They take two naps, one at ten and one at two and they go down at night at 6:30 and sleep til about 7am.-I know I'm biased, but I just think my kids are the cutest things ever! They all three play so well together and the babies are the best of friends as well. I'm so grateful they have each other and that Daci is such an amazing big sister who loves to help and play with the babies.

Street likes to pull hair :-/

Playing in the laundry basket!

New sleeping arrangements

Double trouble...getting into the toilet. Lovely.

First time they wore their winter coats....they hate them :)

They can make a huge mess in two second flat. THey pull ALL of the toys out, scatter them around, and then scream for me to come play with them :)

We love the weekends when Daddy is home to snuggle with us in the mornings!

Church is getting......interesting

I'll stick them in the crib together while I clean their room. Whoever's crib they are in, the other one loves it because its new scenery....the one who is always in that crib is not as entertained. Can you tell who's crib this is? :)

I've been venturing to the grocery store more lately. YAY ME! We just go if I need like ten items or less because I have to use my stroller basket. The babies love it though!

More messes

This is what they do when I put them in the gate so I can get something like the dishes done

They all love bathtime!

Standing together! Street is terrified and very focused to just stay up for like two seconds, and Liv is so sturdy that she is flapping and giggling :)

This could be one of my fav pics. Brothers are the best kind of pillow!